As the summer moves to fall our chapter visited the William Boyce Thompson Field House at Phillips Exeter Academy. The building won our 2019 Building of the Year Award by reaching LEED Silver.

It was very important to the school that the original gym be remembered in the new building. They were able to save an original piece of stone that rests above a narrative sharing who William Boyce Thompson was. In addition, in a room on the second floor there is reclaimed flooring from the original Thompson gym.

There is a parking garage below the gym that gives the school 100+ more parking spaces than it had with the old gym. Currently, the EV chargers are free to anyone who uses them. The rain garden located right outside the main entry allows runoff rainwater a place to go without flooding the campus or nearby sports fields.

Walking up to the building one would have no idea that 1,552 solar panels are on the roof. Surprisingly this is a concern for the school, they have plans to do student tours of the building since the students have no idea that the building can produce most of its own electricity. The solar panels on the roof provided enough electricity for 80% of the building in 2019 and in 2020 they provided 135% of the building’s energy. The school has their own substation, so energy was distributed to neighboring buildings.

The main part of the gym does not have any air conditioning instead there are large fans that circulate the air depending on the air temperature at the floor and at the ceiling.

Be sure to check out our Facebook and Instagram accounts to see photos.

We look forward to seeing you on our next tour!